Book of Serenity, Case 8

[Mornings Sun]

Five Hundred Joyful Lives as a Fox

Dharma Talk by Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Sensei
Book of Serenity, Case 8
Baizhang’s “Fox”

Featured in Mountain Record 27.2, Winter 2008

The Pointer

If you keep so much as the letter a in your mind, you’ll go to hell like an arrow shot; one drop of wild fox slobber, when swallowed, cannot be spit out for thirty years. It is not that the order is strict in India; it’s just that the ignoramus’s karma is heavy. Has there ever been anyone who mistakenly transgressed?

The Main Case

When Baizhang lectured in the hall, there was always an old man who listened to the teaching and then dispersed with the crowd. One day he didn’t leave; Baizhang then asked him, “Who is this standing there?”

The old man said, “In antiquity, in the time of the ancient Buddha Kashyapa, I lived on this mountain. A student asked, ‘Does a greatly cultivated person still fall into cause and effect or not?’ I answered him, ‘He does not fall into cause and effect,’ and I fell into a wild fox body for five hundred lives. Now I ask the teacher to turn a word on my behalf.”

Baizhang said, “He is not blind to cause and effect.”

The old man was greatly enlightened at these words.
The Capping Verse

A foot of water, a fathom of wave.
For five hundred lives he couldn’t do a thing.
‘Not falling,’ ‘not blind,’ they haggle,
As before entering a nest of complications.
Ah, ha! ha!
Understand?
If you are clear and free
There’s no objection to my babble.
The spirit songs and shrine dances spontaneously form a harmony—
Clapping in the intervals, singing ‘li-la.’


One of the great koans of the Zen tradition, Baizhang’s “Fox” is classified as a nanto koan—difficult to pass through. From one perspective it seems to be clearly speaking about causation, about karma. And while this is true, the heart of the koan is pointing to something very fundamental.

On the evening of his enlightenment, the Buddha saw into the real nature of cause and effect. During his years of teaching, he taught that without understanding causation, enlightenment is not possible. To fully understand causation is to understand the nature of things. Every action, whether arising through the body or mind, gives rise to some effect. Every action has a consequence. That consequence is another action, which then gives rise to another effect, on throughout space and time. Those actions and their effects are born out of and perceived through our human consciousness. This can be the path to great suffering, or to liberation through the practice and realization of what is true.

If our actions are based in the three poisons of greed, anger and ignorance, then those actions will give rise to effects that are based in greed, anger and ignorance. If the mind is awakened, and greed, anger and ignorance become generosity, wisdom and enlightenment, then the actions and effects arise out of that enlightened mind. This is how we create conflict in our world on every possible scale, as well as enable lives to be transformed, people to be liberated, change to be affected. It’s profoundly important.

To be caught in samsara is to be caught in the unending cycle of causation, where a negative, hurtful or binding action creates more bondage. Fundamentally, all of this is based in the delusion of the self—the belief that the self is separate and distinct from everything else. In our separateness, we believe we lack what we need, so we set about looking for something that is exterior to that independent self to fill the void. We find something that grants us some sense of relief or pleasure, yet that sense of pleasure doesn’t last. We feel the sense of incompleteness again, and go looking to fill it; and on and on it goes.

The Buddha said when one is awakened that cycle is broken. Samsara is realized in its ultimate form—it has no form. What we experience in our interior and exterior life is a result of consciousness. When that consciousness is deluded and in bondage, so too is the world, both inside and outside. When that consciousness is liberated, so too is the world. An enlightened being breaks the bonds of causation and is free.

Baizhang is one of the great masters of Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism. In this koan, everyday an old man would sit in the back of the hall while Baizhang was giving teisho, a formal discourse. And each day as soon as the talk was over, the old man would disappear. Yet one day he stayed behind. So Baizhang went to him and said, “Who are you?” The old man replied, “I used to be the abbot of this monastery many years ago. One day a monk came to me and asked me this question: ‘Does an enlightened being fall into causation?’” In other words, is an enlightened being subject to the law of cause and effect? “And I answered, ‘No, an enlightened being does not fall into causation.’ And for that I was made to live five hundred years as a fox. Now I beg you, say a turning word, and please release me from this fox body.”

It’s important to understand that in Chinese Buddhism being a fox is not a desirable state of being. Dragons are enlightened beings, while foxes are deluded beings. So the old man says, “Please release me from this fox body.” Baizhang said, “Ask me the question.” The abbot said, “Does an enlightened being fall into causation?” Baizhang said, “An enlightened being does not ignore causation,” that is, is not blind to causation. At that moment the master was released from the fox body.

In another version of this koan that appears in the Gateless Gate, the story continues. The old man said to Baizhang, “I dare to ask a favor of you. Would you please bury the fox body as you would a monk?” Baizhang said he would.

When the old man left, Baizhang called the sangha together and said, “Prepare for a funeral.” Everybody was confused because there was nobody in the infirmary. Whose funeral was it? Baizhang led the community out to a cave on the mountain. Disappearing into the cave, he came out with a dead fox, and then proceeded to bury and offer it the liturgy for a deceased monk. This no doubt created a stir within the sangha. That night Baizhang told the story of what had happened. His main disciple, Huangbo, said, “I have a question. The old man failed to give the correct turning word and was made to live five hundred years as a fox. But if he had answered correctly, what would have happened?” Baizhang replied, “Come a little closer, and I’ll tell you.” As Huangbo approached him, Huangbo reached out and slapped Baizhang. Baizhang laughed heartily, clapping his hands and said, “I thought the foreigner’s beard was red, but I see it is a foreigner with a red beard.” Another translation is, ”I knew foxes’ beards were red—here’s another red-bearded fox.”

What is going on here? According to Buddhist teaching, the old man answered correctly. An enlightened being does not fall into causation. He or she is released from the endless cycle of birth and death, and thus is free of all karma. Then why was this former abbot made to live five hundred years as a fox? Nagarjuna said, “All phenomena are dependently arising. Thus all phenomena are empty.” Nothing in the entire universe arises on its own; everything appears as a consequence of a complex web of interdependence. Nothing exists inherently, therefore, everything is empty.

The old master said that an enlightened being does not fall into causation, and he fell into a fox body for five hundred lives. If he gave the correct answer, why was he made to live as a fox? If it’s not true, then why does Buddhism teach this? It would mean that awakening does not free one from the endless cycle of birth and death. The footnote to the question, “Does an enlightened being fall into causation?” says, “Just do good, don’t ask about the road ahead.” This is a nanto koan, in part, because it’s so easy to fall into intellectual interpretations about its meaning and to just stand back and speculate about “the road ahead.”

Buddhism stresses the importance of understanding karma so we don’t create unnecessary troubles for ourselves and others. If we act in a self-centered way, out of hatred or selfishness, then we create karma that is negative for oursleves and others. Karma itself is not a system of punishment and reward. So was this old man, who was made to live five hundred years as a fox, being punished? Who would be the judge and jury, doling out punishment? That doesn’t exist.

So if karma is not a system of reward and punishment, then why did this old man fall into a fox body? “Just do good, don’t ask about the road ahead.” We always want to know, “Well if I do this, will I get what I want, will something good happen to me?” Understanding karma doesn’t make us a prophet of, or able to control, the future. What it reveals to us with clarity and certainty is that good actions lead to good effects. The eternal question follows, “Then why do bad things happen to good people, and why do good things happen to people who do bad things?” The Buddha said that the interdependent web of causation is very complex. When we turn our attention to it and gain insight into its nature, we begin to see into the inner workings of causation. But only a completely realized being sees into it completely, which means there’s always aspects that we’re not seeing. In a sense, it doesn’t matter. When we understand how things work we know that if we act out of our self-clinging, there’s going to be trouble. We don’t know how or when, we don’t know what form it’s going to take, but we know that the result is going to be obstructive. So just do good.

The pointer says, “If you keep so much as the letter a in your mind, you’ll go to hell like an arrow shot.” To hold a single thing, a single thought, in the mind—even a notion of good and bad, right and wrong—and to fix ourselves to it, to maintain a rigid view of good and bad, creates a line between them. This is a deluded way of seeing things. When people who hold great worldly power see things this way the results can be catastrophic. Such actions cannot really be considered innocent, or even naïve, because they’re always based on certain intentions which are, in turn, based on a particular view of oneself and the world. That leads to very concrete actions. Such is the power of the line that we draw to distinguish the innocent from the evil. That’s the power of the fundamentalist mind. It becomes rigid as it can’t allow anything to cross over the line. That would be unacceptable because it complicates things, it blurs the picture. It requires us to think, to ask questions, to not know. It requires that we slow down and realize that even though we don’t know what we may be unaware of, there is something that we’re not seeing, not considering, and it may be of crucial importance.

To hold a single thing in the mind is to go to hell like an arrow. It binds us to that thing. The Buddhist precepts, the teachings on morality, tell us not to bind ourselves to anything, including notions of moral action. Don’t turn it—the precept—into a thing. There is right and wrong, there is good and evil, but it has no fixed form.

The pointer says, “one drop of fox slobber, when swallowed, cannot be spit out for thirty years.” Karma is a natural law. Whether we understand or agree with it, it’s just the way things work. Once an action is set into motion, it has a life of its own. We know there are consequences when we go to war. In addition to the immediate destruction and death all around us, it creates much more certainty that there will be another war. The consequence of what is done in a moment of anger can create karma that goes on forever, until that cycle is broken or until that stream is shifted.

The pointer continues, “It’s not that the order is strict in India, it’s just that the ignoramus’s karma is heavy.” The depth of our attachments is so profound that our spiritual training must be vigorous. It requires great faith, doubt and unending perseverance to cut through our illusory mind and beliefs.

The commentary says, “If you have eyes to see through this falling into causation”—not ignoring, not being blind to causation—“then you will know that the former head of the monastery did in fact enjoy his five hundred, happy, blessed lives as a fox.” That’s a key part of the koan. We think, “Oh, he’s being punished.” It’s not punishment. In fact, Master Wumen, commenting on this koan, says the old man enjoyed his five hundred happy lives as a fox. So what is that? If it’s not the wrong answer, then why did he fall into a fox body? If it is the wrong answer, than how is it wrong?

There is good and evil but we shouldn’t use good and evil to give rise to a sense of separateness between ourselves and others. This does not mean that everything is relativistic; “Whatever you think is good, is truly good.” It’s a very clearly articulated moral teaching, based in an enlightened view of the real nature of the universe in which there is good and bad, and this very good and bad have no fixed form.

The old man said, “Please, help release me from this fox body.” Baizhang said, “Ask me the question.” He asked, “Does an enlightened being fall into causation?” Baizhang replied, “He is not blind to cause and effect.” At this the old man was enlightened. He is not blind to causation. What is Baizhang pointing to? The footnote says, “Fox drool is still there.” Why is the drool still there even after he is enlightened? Enlightenment is not created and delusion is never extinguished. If delusion were extinguished, where would it go? It has no self-existence, how can it be extinguished? From the beginning, neither delusion nor enlightenment have ever existed. And yet, within this delusion, we can lay the earth and each other to waste. An enlightened being “is not blind to cause and effect,” Baizhang said. Don’t say you’re not subject to karma. The moment you do there’s a fox tail sticking out of your pants.

But then how can we ever be free of causation? What kind of freedom is this? Is an enlightened being free of causation or not? If the old man did not give the wrong answer, then why was he made to live as a fox? Huangbo asks, “What if the old man had given the right answer?” Baizhang says, “Come here and I’ll tell you.” As soon as Huangbo gets up to him, Huangbo slaps Baizhang. Is this falling into causation or ignoring causation? Is Huangbo being approved or disapproved? There is a path beyond the confinement of the dualities that permeates our lives. Then Baizhang laughs out loud and says, “I knew foxes’ beards were red—here’s another red-bearded fox.” Are these the same or different? Are you and I the same or different?

A foot of water, a fathom of wave, for five hundred lives he couldn’t do a thing. That water is the ocean into which all the streams return—the one reality to which the ten thousand things return. It’s also samsara, the turbid streams of consciousness, within which we become lost to ourselves. The footnote says, “Luckily, the rivers are naturally clear and the ocean is naturally calm.” Even when water is turbid, and we can’t see through it, that’s not the nature of the water. It’s just been stirred up. It’s never anything but naturally clear. And yet for five hundred years he couldn’t do a thing.

Karma must be exhausted. That’s much of what is happening in practice and Zen training. That’s why the precepts are so important. If we’re trying to free ourselves on the cushion while sitting zazen, and then we get up and leave a wake of misery and suffering in our lives, it’s just not going to work. We have to see into our own streams of causation and bring those actions into accord with truth and wisdom. Yet while we practice, the wheels of our habitual patterns are still turning. Some of them have a great deal of momentum, so even when we stop actively kicking the wheel to keep it going, it turns. The old man had to live five hundred years as a fox, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t matter what he did as a fox. It’s because of how he lived as a fox that he was able to ask this question and be released.
photo by Gregory J. Smith
photo by Gregory J. Smith

The verse continues, ‘Not falling,’ ‘not blind,’ they haggle. The footnote says. “Stupid slobbering hasn’t stopped.” As before, entering a nest of complications. Ah, ha-ha! He asks, “Understand?” If you are clear and free there’s no objection to my babble. The spirit songs and shrine dances spontaneously form a harmony—clapping in the intervals, singing ‘li-la.’ What is he talking about? There’s a realm that’s free of right and wrong and yet moves in perfect accord with right and wrong without conflict. Buddhism has never promoted not caring or not responding to suffering, being above it all, ignoring or negating injustice. “It doesn’t exist, it’s empty”—this is not a Buddhist teaching. Buddhism has always taught to be concerned, to enter into the “nest of complications” which is our world. Within the world of injustice, to negate or ignore injustice is to perpetuate it. To not take responsibility is to attempt to abdicate what cannot be abdicated. But how do we navigate the immense complexities of our world, let alone our own internal—and complex—system? By realizing it’s the same system. There’s only one universe, only one body. It takes different forms, but it’s one body. To understand karma as non-dual reality is to experience and meet the real world in real time on real terms. Not our terms, but the way it actually is. When we drop away the attachment to, and belief in, a separate self, then the spirit songs and shrine dances spontaneously form a harmony. Where is the conflict?

How do we put an end to the turmoil? When there’s no longer conflict in the heart. When the heart is at peace, the world is at peace. When the mind is in turmoil, the world is in turmoil. The world that we see when we look around is the world that we see when we look inside. That’s why the Buddha said to sit, to turn inside, to ask the essential questions, to do the essential work. It’s there that we understand how to live in this world and how to carry freely that fox drool that’s constantly dribbling down our chins. That’s how the old man lived five hundred happy, blessed lives as a fox.

Nagarjuna said, “Because all phenomena, all things are of the nature of emptiness, everything is possible.” Everything is possible. That is the unremitting, persevering, joyful spirit of the bodhisattva.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Sensei is Abbot of the Zen Center of New York City: Fire Lotus Temple and head of the National Buddhist Prison Sangha. He received dharma transmission from Daido Roshi in 1997.

[Kristopher]

He received dharma transmission from Daido Roshi in 1997.

1997 must have been a good year. It's the same year I received dharma transmission from the Nagles. Three on the tree, manual clutch.